Maria Otto of Little Pastry Shop

“I actually started selling pies to make money to pay for my books in college. My mom and I made pies and we sold them for 10 bucks at the golf course that I worked at, and that’s what got me into baking. When I finally went to college, my mom bought me mixing bowls, cookie sheets, whisks, measuring cups and a pastry cutter and said, ‘Have fun in college!’ 

But I almost didn't go to college. When I finished high school, I was told I was not college material. But one of my friends convinced me to go to Delta and it truly just changed my life. I went to Delta for two years, increased my confidence, got good grades (for once!), and then transferred to Grand Valley to major in marketing, only because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But there I joined the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization. It was a bunch of kids who all had dreams of owning businesses one day: real estate, a vanilla bean company, all of these things.
I wanted to open a bakery that sold seasonal pies. That was my plan, really: go to school to learn the marketing, take entrepreneurship classes to learn the business, open the bakery, and BOOM!

But I was sitting in a supply chain class one day, when the professor said, ‘There are not a lot of women in supply chain, so if you want a guaranteed job after college, go into supply chain.’

So I did. I changed my major to logistics, because I told myself I needed to get a job to make money, and I ended up getting hired full time before I graduated. It was the right move for me at the time, but I remember telling one of the owners of the company that I was going to own a bakery one day, and he said, ‘There's no money in that. Don't do it.’ and for a long time, I felt, ‘You know, he’s right.” 

For the next 10 years, I worked in the automotive industry, chasing the promotion, the need to get paid and stay as busy as possible. I loved my job and I worked hard at it, but I had gotten so busy and tired from work that I stopped baking. 

Then my daughter was going into the sixth grade, and she was about to go on summer break. I don't know what happened, but I had a mindset change and I said to my husband, ‘I've never spent a summer with Clara. We've only got six left until she goes to college, and then we're going to lose her, basically. 

On top of that, I felt like I had a job I loved, but I was living someone else’s life. I said I wanted to live my own life, and instead of helping this company and making it successful, I’m going to put all my energy into my own, and I think I might be really successful with that.

Two weeks later, it was the morning I decided I was going to leave my job. I was so nervous that I almost didn't do it. Sitting in my office with the door closed by myself, I sent a text to my husband and said, ‘I can't do it. I'm too scared. I think I'm gonna be sick.’ He sent me a text back that said, ‘You are strong. It's the right time.’ 

And then I quit.

I'll never forget that day. After I went home, there was a knock on my back patio. My husband, Jeff, said, ‘Maria, there's people here to see you.’ I looked out the window, and it was a couple of my brothers and sisters with a cooler of beer saying, ‘Maria, get out here! We brought beer!’ We sat on the back patio for a few hours drinking beer and talking about life. 

I will never forget that.”

“After I quit my job, I met up with Beth Roszatycki at the Small Business Development Center for coffee and said, ‘Hey, I quit my job.’ And she said, ‘Are you kidding me? What are you going to do?’

I told her I was going to take the summer off to spend time with my daughter, and after that, I’d like to sell my scones. I brought them in a little Tupperware container. They probably looked pathetic, but she said they were beautiful and directed me to the right people. Carly at the Small Business Development Center helped me get my LLC set up. If you’re starting a business, you need to go to the SBDC. They guide you step-by-step and it’s FREE. I didn’t even know this was available.
Then we talked about the name: what are we going to call this company? At first it was going to be called ‘A Little Scone Shop’. But then the cinnamon rolls came into the pictures.

My mom used to make cinnamon rolls every single snow day. It didn't matter if we had two snow days in a row, she made cinnamon rolls. And they were so good! So I had been working on cinnamon roll recipes, when my aunt started talking to me about my cousin's wedding shower saying, ‘I love cinnamon rolls, but I can't find a good old fashioned cinnamon roll’ 

And I said, ‘Well, I make a darn good cinnamon roll.’ 

‘Well, if you want to,’ she said. ‘There's gonna be like, 100 people there.’
I told her I would…but I had never made that many cinnamon rolls before. Even my mom was nervous! 

I made them, everybody loved them, and I got this weird adrenaline rush, like, ‘I actually did it! I think I'm going to sell those, too’. 

Selling both the cinnamon rolls and the scones at the beginning is what made us go with the name, ‘Little Pastry Shop’.”

“My scones are the reason that I opened Little Pastry Shop. Yes. story. I just started making them: the first one I ever made was a tart cherry almond, and it tasted like nothing I had ever had before. So I made more and took them on a family vacation. I have eight brothers and sisters and 27 nieces and nephews, and we all rented a house together. 

One of my brothers said, ‘Maria! What is this?! You need to sell these!’

And I was like, ‘Wait, are you for real?’ 

And he's like, ‘Hello? Yeah!’

- Maria Otto, Little Pastry Shop